Losing Sales Because You’re Too Expensive? (Part 1)

The bane of many sales professionals normally comes towards the end of the sales engagement when the customer asks “So, how much is it?”. We mention the price and it is almost always “not right” with the customer. There again, even if it was a good price, we’ll never hear that from the customer. Is there anything we can do to help us handle this aspect of selling more effectively (read: having the customer agree to pay what we ask)? Of course there is but we have to realise that sometimes it’s what we omit doing, what we did (which we should not have done) or that the timing was lousy or too late. I teach and share some of these ideas as part of the development training programs I design and deliver to specific audiences and sometimes I just take this part (in response to specific corporate requests) and facilitate a session with a focus group. Very often a problem already exists BEFORE the sales visit takes place. We could have targeted a wrong customer or market segment. Some sales professionals are aware that some prospects visited are “wrong” ones but they go ahead anyway, hoping for the best, thinking they could spin gold from straw. Like it or not, some companies will never be our customers. Some target the right segments but met individuals from those companies who are unable to help advance their sales progress in that company. Yet others start off well but only bring up the price issue at the tail end. Perhaps they should have done milestone checks along the way of the sale process – when they encounter some resistance, they could very quickly have resolved the issue there and then, and getting the prospect’s acceptance to the resolution and moving on. Assuming we have done everything smoothly and when we finally come to the part that concerns our price, the customer comes forth with any one of the following (take your pick): “Can you do better than what you’ve just said it costs?” “That’s beyond what we budgeted and expected, we can’t afford what you’re asking. Anything you can do about the price?” Give us a discount of at least 30%. No discount, no go, I’m afraid. Love your solution and company but the price is ridiculously high” “Give us a better price and we might order more” “We’re getting price quotations from others that are way below yours. And no, we won’t tell you what they offered but it’s lower” “Wow, your price is high but let’s us think through this before coming back to you. Meanwhile, if you can lower your price, it’ll stand a better chance” “Thank you for coming, we’ll think about it and get back to you” If your current responses to any of the above do not work (especially if we think we have been using time-honored responses to the above), then stay tuned to Part 2 of my article when I will introduce slightly unorthodox responses that work!